Chapter 119 – The Enraged Imperial Knights – Jeigan’s Judgment

Including Arloston, not a single Imperial knight was an exception. Every one of them felt a deep, burning anger toward Brenark.

Naturally so. Even if the land had been under Seazack’s control, Brenark had been openly looting within Imperial territory. Even small-scale plundering would have been unforgivable, but what Jeigan and his forces had done went far beyond that.

When Arloston first heard that what appeared to be a Brenark scouting unit was carrying out looting, he had felt a strong sense of unease.

The fact that scouts who had advanced ahead of them would deliberately loot in villages where they were easily detected by the Imperial army, and that they were even raising their flags, struck him as suspicious.

However, the reality was that civilians had been killed, and the villages had been set ablaze. First and foremost, those matters had to be dealt with.

Thus, pursuing what they believed to be Brenark scouts, the vanguard advanced northwest.

What they saw ahead was a town of considerable size… where Brenark knights were openly carrying out looting.

Judging from the scale, this was no mere case of a few knights running amok. It was clearly an organized operation.

They had already spent a fair amount of time advancing into the western region, so why were they still here? Observing the situation in the town, the answer became clear. They had likely been repeating the same acts of plunder in every village they passed through.

Imperial citizens, to varying degrees, did not hold favorable feelings toward the people of Brenark. But witnessing such acts of looting right before their eyes filled every one of them with intense anger and murderous intent.

They could not allow such atrocities to continue any longer on Imperial soil. Now that they had secured the Merkus River, cooperation with Brenark was no longer absolutely necessary. Here and now, Brenark would pay for what they had done.

Including Arloston, it took no time at all for them to resolve to drive back the Brenark knights on this very ground.

However, the enemy numbered fifty thousand, while they themselves had thirty thousand. Their morale far surpassed that of Brenark but charging head-on in a straightforward clash was something they wanted to avoid.

The tactic Arloston chose after reaching that conclusion was this diagonal formation.

“Eradicate the bandits who defile Imperial land!”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

Maintaining formation alone requires a certain level of discipline, even just to advance in step with those around you. And typically, formations are meant to move forward, not diagonally.

Yet despite that, the way Arloston swiftly reorganized his forces, and the twenty-five thousand Imperial knights capable of executing it, marked them as elites among elites.

Arloston had trained them to respond to horns and colored flags, allowing each unit to move independently within the formation.

Only this core force of twenty-five thousand, later known as the『Imperial Heart Corps』could respond instantly and accurately to his commands. The territorial troops led by Katzman, of course, could not keep up with such maneuvers.

Arloston first positioned heavy infantry on the left wing and concentrated most of his cavalry on the right. The center was filled with infantry as well, but its depth was relatively thin.

Behind the line of heavy infantry on the left, he had arranged additional infantry in depth. The territorial troops under Katzman were also placed there.

In other words, only the left wing had significant depth in its infantry formation, while the center remained thin. With this setup, Arloston began by advancing only the left wing.

With the left wing advancing first, the other units moved forward in sequence with a delay, until finally the right-wing cavalry began to move. By that time, the left-wing units had already clashed with the enemy.

“Damn bandits!!”

“Don’t think you’re leaving this land alive!”

“I’ll kill you!!”

Since they were the first to engage, enemy forces naturally concentrated against them.

At the front, heavily armored cavalry with high defensive capability were deployed, and to prevent them from being struck from the flanks, additional heavily armored cavalry wielding silver spears were positioned on both sides to support them.

Furthermore, Arloston himself was positioned on the left wing, where the battle would begin.

Fueled by their rage toward Brenark and the presence of their commander, the morale of the Imperial soldiers soared without limit.

“OOOOOOOOOO!!”

“Kill them all!!”

“Death to the bandits!!”

Now then… from Brenark’s perspective, it would seem impossible to stop these Imperial soldiers, whose morale was so overwhelmingly high.

However, only a single unit had pushed forward. If they moved their central forces, which had not yet engaged, around to the flank, they should have been able to quickly surround the enemy in an L-shaped encirclement and drive them back.

But at that moment, Jeigan could not do so. The reason was the Imperial forces advancing with a time lag.

In a diagonal formation, the foremost unit clashes with the enemy first. Even if one attempts to move forces to support or counter it, additional enemy units continue to approach one after another with delays, making it difficult to recklessly disrupt the battle line.

As for the right wing, which would take the longest to reach engagement, it might seem to have some leeway, but it couldn’t be moved carelessly either. After all, the right wing was composed of cavalry. The moment they showed any unusual movement, it was obvious the enemy cavalry would seize the opportunity and charge forward.

In this way, the units continued to collide one after another from the left in staggered timing. Arloston had reinforced the left wing the most and combined with their abnormal level of morale, they succeeded in routing the enemy’s left flank.

At that point, the rest was simple. The left-wing units that had broken through the enemy line only needed to circle around to the rear and strike from both sides.

“Good! Expand the encirclement as we are!”

“Arloston-sama! Allow my Karmanda troops to advance ahead! We will strike down the enemy commander!”

“Katzman-dono, I’m counting on you!”

“Yes, sir!”

Katzman and his men raced along the rear of the enemy’s horizontal formation. That alone would send a massive shock through the Brenark forces. Their will to fight was already collapsing. The outcome was all but decided.

Certain of victory, the Imperial army swung their blades in fury, granting no quarter even to surrendering Brenark soldiers. That in itself was fine, but at that moment, Arloston felt a sense of unease.

‘Something’s off…the Brenark knights number fifty thousand. It’s true they outnumber us…but doesn’t it feel like they’re just short of that…?’

Perhaps some had been assigned as transport units, carrying the plunder and Imperial captives back to their homeland. If that were the case, they would need to head back toward the Merkus River at some point.

He had no intention of allowing Imperial citizens to be taken as slaves, nor could he leave the stolen goods as they were. If they were still in transit, there might still be a chance to recover them.

As Arloston was thinking this, several columns of smoke rose into his field of vision. They were coming from the town.

“…! Don’t tell me… Jeigan! Did you set the town on fire!?”

■

Just as Arloston had predicted, Jeigan had already ordered the town to be set on fire. This was right after the battle began, when the diagonal formation first advanced.

The moment the fighting started, Jeigan instinctively felt it: they would lose. He was a veteran of many battles, and such instincts were grounded in experience.

The Imperial soldiers were far more enraged than he had imagined. That anger translated into overwhelming morale, pushing them to fight beyond their usual limits. He could clearly see his own troops being overawed by the Imperial forces.

Even from his position, still some distance from the charging enemy, he could feel the intense pressure. Facing them directly would only make it worse.

And from the ferocity of their fighting, it was obvious. The Imperials had no intention of forgiving them.

They likely wouldn’t even accept surrender, choosing instead to slaughter them to the last man. The Brenark side had more than enough reason for such treatment, and they had no grounds to complain.

At any rate, if things continued like this, he himself would be captured and subjected to torture. It was as clear as day. He needed to find a way to escape the battlefield. As the supreme commander, he had a duty to report what had happened to the king.

“Gabusrein.”

“F-Father… At this rate, our right flank will be broken through. We need to commit the reserves…”

“No. You will take nine thousand of the reserves and fall back to the town. Set fires as you go, then withdraw to the Merkus River.”

“H… Huh? W-What did you just say, Father…?”

Gabusrein believed this was the moment to commit the reserves to the front line. But Jeigan had judged that even if they were deployed, it would only amount to a stopgap measure.

If that was the case, it was better to use the reserves in a more effective way, one that could be freely executed.

“The Imperial troops are far more well-trained than we expected. And their morale…it’s on another level. Unlike them, we did not come here prepared to die on foreign soil. That difference in resolve is bound to show.”

“………………”

“To begin with, the moment we failed to respond to that unorthodox tactic at the outset, our options became limited. But even now, we can still force this into a draw.”

“And that… is by setting the town on fire…?”

“That’s right.”

If nine thousand men spread out and set fires throughout the town, what would happen? Arloston wouldn’t be able to ignore what was happening right in front of him. He would have to divert troops to firefighting efforts.

During that time, Gabusrein would withdraw with nine thousand men to the Merkus River. Jeigan himself would take one thousand troops and move ahead to the river.

That way, they could still secure a position east of the Merkus River with at least ten thousand soldiers remaining.

The losses would be significant, but Brenark had already achieved the results it needed. This was not the time to push recklessly.

‘So I underestimated that brat…the title of Knight Commander isn’t just for show…’

But he had no intention of simply losing. He would harass the enemy as much as possible before pulling back.

Thus, the reserve forces stationed in the rear quickly retreated toward the town before Arloston’s forces could break through the Brenark lines.

The sudden withdrawal of their commander sent a wave of confusion through the front lines, and their already low morale dropped even further.

This was one of the reasons why the Imperial knights were able to fight so one-sidedly.

And just as the battle seemed about to be decided, flames began to rise from all over the town.

By that time, Jeigan had already moved west with a thousand soldiers, while Gabusrein and his men were just leaving the town.